Graves Disease Awareness pt 2

Again it comes down to me writing something about the disease that has taken over my life. It doesn’t matter how good or bad I feel my Graves Disease is in-charge. It seems the longer and more aware I am of the effects of this thyroid disease the more I seem to want to fight it and win.

In the fall of 2015, I began my first round of Methimazole. Methimzole is a medication used to treat hyperthyroidism. I started out taking 10mg which had some adverse affects on me. Then switched to 5mg and then finally 2.5mg before resulting in remission. Here are a few examples of emails I sent to my endocrinologists my first year of treatment. These are examples of some the the side effects of Methimazole as well as symptoms of Graves Disease.

Good Morning Mrs. P,

We arrived back from our trip Sat afternoon. The trip went well.
I wanted to let you know about the side effects I have noticed. I have continued to have a hard time sleeping along with weird dreams. I started itching in different spots 2-3 days ago.
Do the meds work better if I take them at the same time or does it matter? If not, I have had some emotional highs and lows.
I started taking my meds August 29th. Should I go ahead and get my labs done this week or next?

Mrs. P,
I still am not feeling too good. The anxiety is still pretty high. I have also been having headaches and yellow diarrhea. I had the same problem with the diarrhea a couple of weeks ago. It seems to be worse around the time I would normally take my meds. I’m also having trouble getting to sleep. It’s like I get a jolt of energy right before bed. Is it possible some of these are withdrawal symptoms? 

Good Morning Mrs. P,
I have been feeling depressed and anxious a lot lately. The feeling is exactly like before I was diagnosed. Can this still be related to my thyroid?

Thank you
Kim

Mrs. P,
I was curious what my labs from a couple of weeks ago show. Good? I ask because I have been having the hot flashes like before as well as Im extremely emotional. Im hopeful these are linked to something else and my labs were good.
Thank you

 

Here is the last email I received from my first Endocrinologist the first time I went into remission:

Kim,
Your lab results are still normal, the TSH is slightly lower than it was in
Sept. TSH was 1.2, now 0.8. As it gets lower, it becomes hyperthyroidism.
But normal is as low as 0.2.
Remember, about 50% of people who take methimazole do not have complete
remission and the Grave’s disease returns. Hopefully, you will have full
remission. Make sure you have your new PCM do labs every 2-3 months for the
next 6-12 months, to monitor it.

Happy trails, safe travels, etc. It was a pleasure working with you!

Joanne P, NP

 

This was right before our move to Alabama a year or so ago. These months after going into remission were some of the best. My mind was clear. I wasn’t sick all of the time. I was able to get everything that needed to be done, done quick and without much thought. I felt normal. Even if it was for  only 4-5 months. Be make sure to stay tuned for the next part of the story of my battle with Graves Disease.

If you have been feeling out of sorts, had hot flashes before time for menopause, felt your heart racing, not been able to focus, you feel really low lows and really high highs, not had the energy to do the things you love enjoy or even just to take care of yourself; please make an appt with your doctor and ask them to test your thyroid hormones. Be your own advocate and fight for your health.  For more information check out Thyroid Hug

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Alabama Medieval Fantasy Festival 2018

We were very happy to attend ALMFF again this year. This time Bubbles and I will be sharing everyone’s favorite parts of this years festival. I want to give a quick shout out to all the amazing people who make the festival such a fun and educational event, You guys are the reason my family will attend every year until we move again. Thanks!

 

Baby Kermit: I liked the red Jousting guy. His horse and  sword were really cool. I liked the popcorn they sold. It was so yummy. Salty and sugary. I liked the pirate swords. I really like swords because  Jake and the Neverland Pirates is one of my favorite shows. I was a pirate for Halloween.

 

Pooh:I liked yellow Joust guy.  His armor was cool. I also liked the popcorn, cause it was really good and warm. I also liked the pirates. They pretended to try to take of our toes off. I also got a black pearl from one of them. They were very funny and made us all laugh.

 

Bubbles: My favorite part was the Fairy Tea Party with the Queen. We got the tickets for free.  At the tea party we met the Fairy Queen. I saw a friend of mine from AHG (American Heritage Girls). We all chose a seat at the table. We talked about manners while we waited for the Queen. The queen arrived and we greeted her. We all bowed.  I said to her “It is an honor to be in your presence.” We drank tea and talked. Then we said Goodbye because the festival was ending. I enjoyed it a lot!  I hope we will go there again next year.

 

Duke:The jousting was a bunch of fighting. They were riding around on horses and then they were trying to break lances. The yellow dude he hit the red dude in the head with a shield. The first time they fought they had swords. They were trying to kill each other. Every time the yellow guy hit the read guy in the head with a shield. The popcorn was delicious. Some kind of fresh sweet popcorn. I wanna go again, I really like the jousting.

 

Jem: I had the most fun dancing with the queen. I don’t know how to dance at all. We learned 2 different dances. We held hands and danced around in a circle doing different moves. It was alot of fun learning some Medieval dances.We were all tired afterwards. I wanted to take a nap and eat lunch. (It wasn’t lunch time yet 😦 )

 

 

Yardsaling or Treasure hunting for adults

So I woke up that Saturday morning needing a break from being sick and medical talk. I needed at least a couple of hours without worrying about the things that have kept me so stressed the last few months. I said a prayer and knew that I needed to get out of the house and try to enjoy life instead of wanting to cry. I thought yardsaling was a great reason to get out of the house and to force me to do some socializing.

I got up pretty early that morning and once I decided we were going I just needed to have a plan before springing it on George. He’s more likely to go along with things if I have a plan. I started out by searching for yard sales in our area using multiple websites and wrote down as many as I could find.Then I took my idea to George. He said ok. and I ran back to the computer to narrow down the yard sales we would visit by location.

I chose some of the more community wide yard sales as there tend to be several in one area and that means more time shopping and less time driving around. The kids quickly got ready and we headed out on our adventure.

Yard sale day haul:

Baby Kermit: a kindergarten workbook and a beanie baby kitty. He has named it Fudge and decided its his kitty Butterscotch’s baby

Pooh: a beanie baby cat and a Domo plushie ( I still want to call them stuffed things)

Duke: a beanie baby cat, a Batman multi-tool, and a plaid comforter

Bubbles: an orange scarf, a beanie baby Pegasus, a lamp, a used sticker book, and some Shopkin’s stickers

Jem: a cap with a mustache on it, a weird Japanese inventions book, Wicked the book, a Lisa Frank kittens folder and some clothes

Pippi: sandals, a beanie baby cat, jewelry making stuff, 2 belts, a Lisa Frank kitten folder, 3 frames and some clothes

George: an exercise ball, some books, and he bought the kids more DVDs

Kim: a pocket watch necklace

The poker chips, mini heart pans, cat fabric, Zodiac fabric, and barnyard animals drawstring bag were all bought for board gaming purposes. The poker chips are for extra games pieces in case some get lost or we prefer bigger pieces. The heart pans I’m hoping will work out as dice trays. The fabric is to make some tile bags for better storage for some of our games. The barnyard animal bag is to use to store game pieces or traveling.

In total we spent about $45 dollars. That may seem like a lot but we got alot free. It rained at one point so things that had gotten wet were free. The other thing that happened was that we met some kind older people who gave us stuff. It was a good time out with my family. I hope one day the kids look back and say it wasn’t all that bad that Mom woke us up early on a Saturday.

Purrlock Holmes

Hey Pippi here, Today I’m writing about a board game that is my new favorite, Purrlock Holmes. Mom was pretty happy when Dad ordered it on Amazon. Mom has wanted it since she learned about it, now we have it! The theme of the game is based on cats and other animals. It is a newer game.

Purrlock Holmes is a 2-5 player game but I think it’s more fun with 4-5 players. It suggests ages 10+, Bubbles kept knocking over the card in front of her (But I think everyone has/had that problem). I don’t think kids younger than 8 should play. It’s pretty easy to teach the game to other people. The box says 20-30 Min. It takes us 10-30 minutes but it depends on if you have to teach others. The main object of the game is finding out who in Furriartys gang has committed the recent crime.

What’s in the box:

60 Clue cards

5 player boards

5 card stands

18 paw print tokens

2 Furriarty/Award tokens

1 Rulebook

A card is set in front of you, like a 5 o’clock Goose or another card. You get 2 cards (if you are the starting player you get 4 cards). The starting player will ask if 2 cards are leads or dead ends. Let’s say the card in front of you is a 5 o’clock Goose, You will ask if a 2 o’clock Dog is a lead or a dead end. Other players (or player) would say dead end. Can you guess what they should say about a 4 o’clock Goose? Lead! Then the starting player would pass the remaining 2 cards to the next player. When a player guessed the time or criminal or both they recieve money or  paw print tokens.The game ends when someone catches Furriarty. All players count the number on the back of the paw print tokens and who ever has the most points wins.  Who ever has the least points gets “Litter Box Inspector”.  Here is a play though that can help explain it in more depth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GaYj7mtLO8.

Educational aspect? Yes Thinking, problem solving and math.

I love the game and I hope you will too!

Your tired typer, Pippi

 

 

River Region Comic Con 2018, AL

We are a family that loves alot of nerdy things including board games, super heroes/villains, video games, comics, MTG, and lots of more. My top 3 cartoons right now are Adventure Time, Teen Titans, and We Bare Bears. We just bought 11 more board games recently. (Watch for lots of board game reviews to come.) So when I saw that there was going to be a comic con in Montgomery I got super excited. I was even more excited when George agreed that we should go.

We started out our morning slowly. I had laughed when I saw that the  River Region Comic Con didn’t start until 10am. Nerds need their sleep too. We arrived to the doors of the Cramton bowl a little after 10. I didn’t make the time to choose the boys outfits or get them to wear costumes but the rest of us did. Jem wore her personalized Minecraft shirt that she got for Christmas as well as rainbow colored finger-less gloves, Bubbles wore some silk orange butterfly wings, Pippi wore her Fox Girl costume that she created for an AHG dance that she wasn’t able to attend, George wore his Super Nerd costume and I wore my mermaid costume shirt. There was alot of great cosplay. I couldn’t believe how good some of the costumes were. A few we saw were Ursula from the Little Mermaid, Jack, Sally and Oogie Boogie, Power Rangers, and lots more. Maybe next year we can get some kewler costumes together.

We got through the ticket line pretty quickly and then headed downstairs for the first panel. The only panel we went to was Breaking into the Industry: Stunt Work and Acting with Cody Robinson and Justin Leek. These guys did a really good job. The girls listened really well and were actually interested. It was kewl to listen to the guys talk about how much fun they had doing stunts or meeting big name actors. I would have to say now I am a fan of both Justin Leek whom we found out grew up in Montgomery as well as Cody Robinson who is also an AL native.  I wished they would have done a few stunts to show us the types of stunts and acting they do.

George heard that there were going to be D&D campaigns you could join. He thought it would be a good way to introduce the girls to Dungeons and Dragons. I don’t know much about their time playing other than they had a hard time hearing over all the other fun stuff going on. The girls had fun and it was more father-daughter bonding time. They all have asked us about getting back to Mice & Mystics or them to play more No Thank You Evil.  They may be blossoming D&D players.

The boys and I spent our time experiencing other aspects of the Comic Con. Pooh and Baby Kermit played Pokemon Stadium on N64 while Duke played Street Fighter on Sega and  Mario on Super NES. There were alot of other consoles including VR but there were lines to play. I bought each of the boys a kewl Skylanders vehicle to keep them entertained for a few minutes. I also did a smart thing and fed them. The boys are bears if they don’t eat so I bought them all hotdogs. They didn’t have tables set up for dining so I took the boys outside to get some air. Then we walked to the car to get one of the many drinks we keep in the car. The last thing we did was watch some girls dance. They were dressed in some Japanese girl character outfits. I don’t know much about that kinda stuff but It was outside so we went.

I am glad we were able to attend the first River Region Comic Con. It was alot of fun and can only get better.